Pubdate: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 Source: News & Observer (NC) Copyright: 2002 The News and Observer Publishing Company Contact: http://www.news-observer.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304 Author: Angela Heywood Bible, Staff Writer Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n217/a08.html SEIZURES OF DISKS INTRIGUE CHATHAM PITTSBORO - The mystery of Chatham County's missing marijuana developed a new twist Wednesday when two FBI agents asked a county commissioner who is also running for sheriff to help them confiscate a year of telephone recordings from the county's emergency dispatch center. Commissioner Rick Givens said the agents, who delivered a subpoena for all recordings of incoming calls placed to the center between Sept. 1, 2000, and Sept. 1, 2001, asked him to tag along because "they wanted someone credible to expedite the process." To some, that explanation seems strange. Givens, a four-year commissioner, has been outspoken this past year about getting to the bottom of the September 2000 theft of 5,000 pounds of marijuana from the sheriff's office - -- three-fifths of it from a surplus Army truck parked behind the department and the rest from a shallow pit at the county landfill. In June, at a news conference in Pittsboro, the FBI announced it was investigating the thefts. So far, no charges have been filed. An FBI agent handling the case did not return a call to his office Thursday. Sheriff Ike Gray did not return repeated calls to his office Wednesday and Thursday. Dispatch centers record all of their telephone communications, consisting of 911, personal and administrative calls. Those include nonemergency calls from complainants, officers, outside agencies and alarm companies, said Nick Waters, Orange County emergency management director. The recordings also include informants for CrimeStoppers giving tips to dispatchers, said James Bowden, a Siler City police sergeant and candidate for sheriff. One possibility, Bowden said, is that the FBI agents could be searching for evidence of a caller reporting something that was never investigated. "Evidently there's some type of conversation they're looking for," Bowden said, "a call that came in that they're interested in." The agents must have found something new, he said, or they would have subpoenaed the recordings months ago. While Bowden had no involvement in the seizure of the recordings, which are made on DVDs, he suspects it was part of the FBI's investigation into the missing drugs. "I'm sure if the FBI was down there about the [recordings], it was because of the marijuana," he said. "That's what they're there for." But Bowden "has no earthly idea" why the agents asked Givens -- or anyone - -- to accompany them. As a law enforcement officer, he said, he would have delivered the subpoena on his own. "I think they went to him as a county commissioner to make sure it was handled properly and legally," Bowden said. "Don't ask me why they picked him. I don't know why they didn't go to the county manager." Randy Knight, a retired trooper who also plans to run for sheriff, said he couldn't imagine why FBI agents would ask Givens to accompany them. "Of all people, why him?" Knight said. Regardless, both Bowden and Knight say Givens' involvement with the FBI and the recordings won't affect the upcoming sheriff's race. Waters said he was surprised the Chatham center still had the recordings from September 2000. His office recycles their disks every three to six months, unless they have evidentiary value. "That's a lot of listening somebody's got to do," Waters said. "Oh, man." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D